Isaiah 40: 3 - 5
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Luke 3:1- 7
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
“You brood of Vipers!”
How's that for a welcome?
You come all the way out into the wilderness to hear John the Baptist speak, and maybe be baptised by him, and how does he greet you?
“You brood of Vipers!”
Maybe he needed to work on his customer service skills?
“Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
I wonder why people didn't turn back?
Perhaps they had guilty consciences?
Perhaps they thought they deserved being told off?
Or perhaps they thought the people around them needed telling off, and John was the man for the job?
We don't like being told off, we don't like to think of ourselves as bad people, and being told off can stir up feelings of guiltiness. We may quite like certain people being told off, people we are fed up with, people who have annoyed us, people who have done us wrong.
Conversely, being told off can also temporarily batter down feelings of guilt if we have a bad conscience, and imagine we deserve the punishment. We think. 'I've been bad, I've been told off, and now all is well.' Only guilt creeps back.
Perhaps with John as my model I should call you all to repent or burn?
What a rotten lot you are! Turn from your wicked ways else destruction will befall you!
I sometimes hear people lament the passing of 'fire and brimstone' preaching.
Repent because the End of the World is coming and your punishment awaits you!
John's warning is similar, so you had better repent before Jesus gets here, he declares,
“His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Now – has he got that right?
We hear these passages at Advent in the glow of fairy lights and nostalgia, they are so familiar and comforting that perhaps we don't take notice, but did Jesus winnow and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire?
Did John the Baptist get that right?
Jesus healed the sick.
He sat and ate with sinners.
He taught of the Kingdom of Heaven, how it was like a man sowing a field, or a mustard seed growing.
He taught us to call God our heavenly Father, he taught love of neighbour, and even that we should love our enemies.
He taught that we should forgive, and that God forgives us.
He was sharp with the Pharisees and Scribes, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”
Hypocrisy made Jesus angry, especially 'holier than thou' hypocrisy from religious people.
However, Jesus did not put the stick about, he did not punish people for their wickedness.
He could of done, as the Son of God he had the power, and the moral authority to judge, but he did not. We who cannot rightly judge often do judge others. God who judges rightly offers forgiveness.
Jesus did point out the hypocrisy of those who do judge, “ first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Here's how most religion works.
There is a set of moral laws given by God.
God enforces them with divine punishments handed out from heaven.
He also appoints a professional Priesthood to warn people of the terrible consequences of breaking His laws.
The thing to do if you have broken one of God's laws is to be very sorry, and God might forgive you. Offering a sacrifice of some kind may make God accept you are really sorry. You can do something good to make up the balance for the wrong you have done, or give something costly to God by way of a sacrificial apology.
As John the Baptist warns, “The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
But Jesus turned religion on its head.
According to Jesus the law of God is the law of love, 'love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.'
Love is harder to keep than law, because love demands perfection, and there are no legal loop holes with love. For example, no law could make a mother care for her child as devotedly as love does.
We are to love as Christ loved us, even if it takes us to the cross.
We thought we occasionally fell short of a moral law or two, but Jesus points out we constantly fall short of perfect love, yet according to Jesus God does not threaten judgement – He offers forgiveness.
At the cross Jesus was winnowed and burnt up with unquenchable fire, he was axed and cut down, and thrown into the fires of hell.
Here's the ultimate turning upside down of religion - Jesus makes himself the sacrifice for our sin. At the cross God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one as they always were, and always shall be. The crucifixion shows the depths of God's love and forgiveness. In Jesus we see God's goodness, and our fallenness.
We are the judgemental ones in need of a sacrifice in order to accept forgiveness.
John the Baptist is like a part of the Old Testament that has stepped into the new Testament. A prophet of of God's wrath and our punishment. A voice crying in the wilderness, that hasn't comprehended that the Messiah will make known not the wrath of God, but the love of God. That when God steps into our world,
“Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level,the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed...”
Sin brings terrible consequences to us and our world without the added punishment of God, and remaining in our guilt, and in our judgement of others, has terrible consequences for our souls. Thanks be to God, the baptism that John administered was a sign of God's forgiveness.
Into the waters of baptism, our sin washed away, arising from the waters cleansed.
In baptism we are buried with Christ, and with Him rise to new life.
Sin and the destructive consequences of sin are left in the watery grave, freed from judgement we are freed to love as God intended.
We fall short of perfect love, but are gathered up in the arms of perfect love.
As John the Baptist himself proclaimed,
“Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
Amen.
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